After massive nationwide protests led by student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, there’s no shortage of predictions about the coming sea change in the politics of gun control. Behind such a shift would be one big reason: It’s now completely possible, even likely, that politicians could decide this year to break from the paranoias that drive many of their decisions.
It’s been true for decades that the gun issue pitted large polling majorities in favor of tighter restrictions against an intense organized group advocating for gun rights. But the particular stories of the last 20 years have been, at their center, party stories.